Collateral Nascence
by Tsuchikororin
Summary: Everyone Sakura loved was murdered, & she is near death herself. She desperately accepts a deal from a Nekomata, a ten tailed cat demon, and is brought back to the past as a 12 year old with a mission to save everyone from their imminent deaths. SasuSaku
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its storyline, or characters. However, this fanfiction is based on Naruto, and is my creation. THE GENERAL PLOTLINE WAS INSPIRED BY **-brezoflower- **'s story, ****If I Knew Then What I Know Now****! Read her story too, it's awesome. XD  
**

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**C O L L A T E R A L - N A S C E N C E**

_**Second Beginnings**_

* * *

_Must keep running - MUST! _Sakura's mind screamed as she hurtled through blue-misted, foreign woods.

The 18-year old clutched at her wounded shoulder, her arm flapping uselessly at her broken ribcage. She stumbled painfully on an ancient root poking from the earthen ground and recovered herself quickly. However, she felt - she knew...her enemy was drawing near, looming with the heady feeling of death and carnage.

_Dead..._the archaic willows and oaks moaned to her, tossing their branches and dying leaves. Sakura let out a strangled sob. _They're all dead..._

She blundered on, skidding to a stop when she reached the outskirts of a cliff. Footsteps behind her.

_This is it. Kakashi-sensei's dead. Naruto...gone, and who knows what those cursed Akatsuki are doing to he and his demon. Sasuke..._

Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, a few tears escaping.

_Dead._

Slowly, the ninja turned around to face the ever-drawing near footsteps. She clutched a chipped kunai, her last weapon. _I...Mom, I'm scared. But you're long dead too, aren't you? And Father...I'll...I'll be joining you guys soon. But I'll make you proud - I promise! I'll take down as many as I can...with me..._

"Girl." , came the soft murmur. Sakura snapped her eyes open, narrowing them slowly at the figure in front of her. Her fingers tightened around her kunai.

She spared no words, and dematerialized in front of him, appearing behind his back. _Now! _all of her being, _screamed. _The kunai in her hand swerved in a descent, arcing through the air into his back, into the black and red cloak, into the midnight-blue locks that reminded her so much of...

There was a movement behind her, and suddenly the man in front of her wasn't there. A stinging pain made itself known in her unwounded shoulder. Sakura numbly looked down at the offending spot and dully acknowledged a katana tip protruding there.

She witnessed the katana slide back out of her body.

"One shoulder stabbed, the other, dislocated," murmured the deep voice behind her. "Three broken ribs, a fractured arm, a swollen ankle, and numerous other cuts. You've held up well, kunoichi."

A strong arm lifted Sakura from the back by her collar, then slowly turned her to face him.

Deep, familiar black eyes melted into blood-red. Three spikes reminiscent of the torture device, the Catherine wheel, twirled lazily.

"Mangekyo Sharingan," came the whisper.

_So it ends, _Sakura thought dully, her mouth muted by the blood slowly pouring out of it.

Uchiha Itachi hesitated - hesitated.

His eyes slowly reverted to it's inky black hue.

"My foolish brother...he loved you."

_But he's dead..._Sakura wanted to scream..._Because you killed him!_

Itachi released his grip on her shirt and she collapsed to the ground. It took her awhile to realize he was no longer there.

"DAMMIT, KILL ME!" she screamed after him. "I don't want to live - KILL ME!"

No response.

Choked sobs rose from her throat. Sakura pulled her bleeding body up from the coarse grass, then sprinting --

_See ya there guys._

-- threw herself off the cliff.

* * *

Her body - falling, falling.

An amused voice... **Gave up, eh?**

"SHUT UP, GO AWAY!" Sakura screamed.

The voice turned scornful. **Pitiful girl. We all have troubles you know.**

Sakura didn't dare open her eyes. Was she dead? But something compelled her to answer the mysterious voice.

"Giving up? Ha. There's nothing to give up. Everyone I loved...dead. Yeah, we all have troubles, but...why am I even talking to you? I don't know who you are."

Her body seemed to stop in midair, cushioned by an invisible force. Sakura opened her eyes and saw above her the cliff she had thrown herself off. She cautiously tilted her head down, and saw that twenty feet beneath her was ground.

_"_Oh god," she whispered in shock.

The deep voice, which sounded kind of feminine behind its rough quality, chuckled her. The sound resonated all around the teenager's body.

**Who am I? You amuse me with your boldness. Very well then. I am an uncaptured demon, a ten-tailed Nekomata. I've inhabited this sacred mountain for quite awhile, almost to the point I was forgotten. Not that I have a problem with **_**that. **_**I'm not foolish enough to set my bloodlust and rage upon villages, just to get captured and detained like my brothers and sisters.**

"Oh god," Sakura repeated. A ten-tailed cat demon - she could be obliterated in an instant!

Warm air cocooned Sakura, and a slight wind picked up all around her.

**You smell...as if you've met some demons before. Yes, I scent two of my brothers. Tanuki-chan...Kitsune-chan...**

"Y-yes...I've met the human containers of the Shukaku and the Kyuubi, if that's what you mean," Sakura said nervously.

**Give them my regards.**

A cry of anguish rose in Sakura's throat. "You don't understand! They've been ripped from their hosts by the Akatsuki. The containers are long dead, and your brothers are probably going to be harnessed for their power to use and capture other demons!"

The air seemed to still around her suspended body.

**You have...mentioned that you've lost everyone dear to you. My brothers' containers...were they one of them?**

"Yes..."

**You want revenge, don't you...?**

A terrible fury welled up in the kunoichi. "Yes. Yes! I must avenge them. The Akatsuki will pay..."

**The Akatsuki captured my brothers to use their power, you say. And the Akatsuki also killed your human friends...**

There was a moment of silence between Sakura and the Nekomata.

**You - mortal. I'm giving you my trust. I will suspend time and send you back into the past. I'm giving you a second chance, see. In this borrowed time, you must defeat the Akatsuki and prevent my brothers and your friends from getting captured or killed. If you fail, time will revert itself to where we are now. You will not remember me or the chance I'm giving you, and you will also plummet down the rest of the twenty feet to your death.**

Sakura drew in a heavy breath. "Could you - could you really do that? Make me 12-years old again, and let me prevent my friends' deaths and the demon captures?!"

**Yes.**

The kunoichi realized something quickly with an overwhelming fear. "What if - in that time, something changes? Like the Akatsuki attack earlier than normal? I'll have the mind and strength of a 12-year old. I won't be able to stop them if that happens!"

**Cunning of you. You strike me as an honorable one deserving of this chance. Then, I will allow you the mind and strength of how you are right now as an 18-year old, but you will be 12. You can still grow - like turning 13 and having the mind and strength of a 19-year old, and turning 14 and so on. And time to time, I might even lend you my power. You seem worthy of it...**

"Thank you...Thank you!" Sakura cried. For the first time in such a long while, she was beginning to have hope again...

**See you in the past.**

A terrible inky darkness enveloped Sakura's body, and then around her was the weightlessness of death.

* * *

"Sakura! Wake up, you're going to be late!"

Sakura sleepily opened her eyes, only to have her pupils hit with blinding sunlight.

In a startled frenzy, she jumped from bed and did a double-take. A bed? Not the floor? And sunlight. Strange.

The 18-year old looked up and saw a mirror across from the bed. She was a child! What in the world had happened?

In a second, all of what happened in the past - or future - rushed back to her.

"The Nekomata..." Sakura murmured in perplexity. Then, a bright grin enveloped her face. She was twelve again. And god, what a twelve-year old! She felt herself brimming with her powerful chakra, capable of inhuman strength and a woman's mind capacity.

"Sakura!" sounded the singing wake-up call from downstairs. "You alive yet?"

_More so than ever._

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_To be continued..._

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Whee, that's done with. Hope you guys like it!


	2. Revisiting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its storyline, or characters. However, this fanfiction is based on Naruto, and is my creation. THE GENERAL PLOTLINE WAS INSPIRED BY -brezoflower- 's story, If I Knew Then What I Know Now! Read her story too, it's awesome. XD**

**-**

**C O L L A T E R A L - N A S C E N C E**

**Second Beginnings**

**-**

_"The Nekomata..." Sakura murmured in perplexity. Then, a bright grin enveloped her face. She was twelve again. And god, what a twelve-year old! She felt herself brimming with her powerful chakra, capable of inhuman strength and a woman's mind capacity._

_"Sakura!" sounded the singing wake-up call from downstairs. "You alive yet?"_

_More so than ever._

_-_

Haruno Sakura stared at her old dress. Last time she had seen it, it was bloodstained and torn. Now, in the past - or present - it stood on the clothes-stand, innocent, clean and freshly ironed.

The owner of the dress in particular clucked her tongue in distaste. Did she really think it was pretty back then? It was blindingly noticeable, one thing that a ninja must never be. It's hanging skirts on both sides could easily become an obstacle in leg movement and get tangled.

Sakura quickly took her mother's shearing scissors and cut the thin red fabric at the skirt-edge, just long enough to make a red shirt. She put it on her young, un-puberty-affected body and slipped on a pair of black shorts. She smiled at the familiarity at the outfit. One thing it was lacking was the crisp white skirt over the pants that signified her important standing as a top medic-nin. But that would come later, when she could freely reveal her healing skills.

The kunoichi-genin strapped her kunai pouch to her thigh and placed her Konoha hitai-ate over her pink hair, which immediately caught her attention.

_I could do something with this..._

Right now, she didn't have the suitable tools to execute her idea, so she left the long roseate locks as they were.

The twelve-year old hopped down the wooden steps of the staircase two at a time and ran pell-mell into her mother, who was apparently about to go up and check on her daughter.

"Sakura! What have you been doing? You're going to be late, and for your first day too!"

Mom.

_Staring at the space in front of her, with gentle smile on her lips, which were reddened by the trickle of blood that ran down her chin. With a final breath, she stilled and lay silent..._

Sakura shook her head furiously and smiled a forced grin at her mom.

"What is it?" her mother said, amused. "Happy about being a genin?"

Sakura took a breath and looked at her mother for a long while, memorizing her features. If only it could stay this way...

"Sakura?"

Mrs. Haruno's daughter wrapped her arms around the comforting, warm body.

_Alive, she's alive._

"Well, isn't this a pleasant change?" Sakura's mother laughed, patting the baby-koala bear positioned girl around her waist. "And here I thought I was raising a sulky teen."

Sakura disentangled her self and gave a bright smile. "I'll be going Mom. Wish me luck."

"Ah, yes. And would you take this to Yamanaka-san's flower shop?" she said, giving Sakura a wrapped package. "'Kay then, give your mom a kiss."

Sakura willingly complied and left her home, which in the grim future, was horribly burnt and reduced to rubble.

_That, and my mother's death, is going to change._

_**Ah, you've finally come to thinking of the changes you are to make. Well, you have six years ahead of you. Plenty time until the past, this present, comes to meet the point of time you were falling off the cliff. **_

Sakura stopped in her walk at the sidewalk, then realized it was the Nekomata speaking to her inside her mind.

_Where are you? _she thought warily.

_**Somewhere**_, came the nonchalant reply. _**By the way, can you get rid of your head-mate?**_

Sakura inquired curiously, _What head-mate?_

_**Whoever this "Inner Sakura" is. She's trying to pick a fight with me. **_

_Oh. That. No way, seeing as she is "me." I guess she's just a more rebellious version of my soul lurking around in my head and plotting plots. Sometimes I listen to her advice. You could say she's an extra person inhabiting this body's mind._

_**Ah. Pity. Go on with your life. I'm interested to see how you humans...work? Do things? Just ignore me.**_

Sakura sighed. If she had this voice in her head just spouting nonsense...oh god, was this what Naruto had to live with, or was his case different?

Walking on, the Yamanaka Flourists appeared into view.

The genin walked into the shop and left the package at the counter. Ino appeared from the back of the shop. Without thinking, Sakura rushed over to Ino and hugged her _really _hard.

_Dying like a drowned flower surrounded by the whipping rain, spirit down and cursing the world..._

"Uh...Sakura? Hi?...Can you get off me? Is this a weird way of persuasion on me giving up Sasuke-kun or what?"

Sakura snapped out of her morbid thoughts. Ino...alive, and a young, childish, twelve-year old again.

"Hehe...hey. Sorry about that. I've - um - missed you a lot."

"It's only been a day." Ino gave Sakura a weird look.

Sakura hurriedly gestured toward the package on the counter. "Mom says hi."

"Whatever. Let's get moving forehead-girl," Ino said, cheerily stepping out into the sunlight. "Race to get a seat by Sasuke-kun!"

Soon, the two friend/rivals' feet were a blur of ninja sandals moving through Konoha's marketplace, then the school yard, then through the halls...BANG! They futilely attempted to squeeze their bodies through the doorway of the Ninja Academy classroom.

"This is what happens when pigs don't learn how to work-out, Ino-_pig," _Sakura said through gritted teeth. How long it had been since she last enjoyed these little competitions with Ino!

"You talking to me, Forehead-girl? It's you taking up the doorway!"

With extra effort, though without using her massive supply of chakra, (she knew it'd be REALLY unfair) Sakura managed to pull through and enter the room first.

Naruto bounded to her, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Hey Sakura-chan! Can you sit by me? Ne?"

Sakura stared into his young, twelve-year old face. _What will the Akatsuki do to you in the future?_

_**Ah. On that topic. My little brother, the Kyuubi, is within him. Yes, I sense him well. His power diminished greatly by that curious seal. No doubt, if you can get through this right, we can we reunited...**_

Sakura was about to answer when Naruto repeated his question.

"Uh...Hey Naruto! Sure, I guess. Come on!"

Ino stared after the two. "Sakura? With the school failure? Woah..."

Sakura took Naruto by his hand, not hearing Ino's comment. Back then, in the future, Naruto had been one of her greatest friends, fighting by her side, and vowing to fight off the Akatsuki, but...

"Don't get captured again, okay?" Sakura quietly murmured.

"Eh? Nani?"

"Nothing! Let's sit by Sasuke-kun," the girl exclaimed, ignoring Naruto's protests and dragging him over to where the boy was sitting.

Sasuke gave a side-glance at the two clamoring to get past the crowd of fangirls.

"Ohayo Sasuke-kun!" Sakura plopped down on the bench beside him, not daring to look at him directly. Naruto sat down with a "harrumph" beside her, still voicing aloud his wondering of why everyone liked "Sasuke-teme."

_Brought down to his knees and clutching at his empty eye-sockets in pain. "Run Sakura...! Get away from here!"_

Sakura finally looked up. Sasuke didn't answer, merely staring ahead. Meanwhile, the other students and Iruka-sensei filed in.

Naruto was about to stand up and declare his enmity to Sasuke in his face, but Sakura quickly pulled him down, knowing what was going to happen. No siree, she couldn't let Sasuke and Naruto's first kiss be exchanged today!

"Sit down, kids. You're genins now, act like one."

When the chattering subsided, he continued.

"Now, I'm going to assign you to your teams and respective teachers..." Iruka-sensei droned on, listing their teams and soon the class was abuzz with complaints and cries of joy.

Sakura decided to express her enjoyment at the choosing of both her teammates, instead of just Sasuke.

Hyuuga Neji wasn't interested at all in his new comrades or teacher. He glanced warily around the room for them when something caught his eye. A flare of very bright, abnormal chakra. Funny, he realized. It was so bright and visible...and yet he didn't have his Byakugan on. When no one seemed to be looking, Neji activated his kekkei genkai and the room's inhabitants' bodily contents and chakra coils were revealed.

He quickly found what he was looking for in Haruno Sakura.

Within her chakra coil was a current of power, nothing unusual. What was unusual was the amount! No genin's chakra aura was as brilliant as Sakura's. She seemed to radiate energy. Neji blinked once, twice. The day before, she had an under-average amount, a pitiful coil of power incomparable to his or Sasuke's.

The Hyuuga Branch member deactivated his Byakugan and chose to sit back quietly and figure out the mystery. What could have happened...?

-

Kakashi-sensei leaned against the Academy roof's metal rails and exhaled. What childish...children. He didn't even begin their teaching and he hated them. The girl and that obnoxious living nightmare of a boy even had the nerve to chuck chalkboard erasers at him like rounds of a machine gun right when he entered their classroom! No, Kakashi had certainly _not _expected that.

"Tell me your name, likes, dislikes, dreams...etc..." he droned soporifically.

Naruto then pushed Kakashi to do the same and they ended up hearing the obscure answer Sakura then heard twice.

Sakura smiled. Same old Kakashi.

_Sitting up against a tree trunk with his bloodied but proud Konoha hitai-ate sitting beside him on the grass. The name "Rin" left his lips and he smiled and closed his eyes. One would've thought he was sleeping..._

Sakura's reverie was broken by a loud voice.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen! I hate the time it takes for the ramen to cook. And my dream is to become the next Hokage and make everyone acknowledge me!"

The Nekomata snorted. _**Interesting kid. Can't believe Kitsu-chan is stuck in **_**him. **_**Must be torture.**_

Sakura _had _to agree.

Then, Sasuke's answer: "Uchiha Sasuke. There are many things that I hate, and not much that I like...And my ambition is to kill a certain man."

_**Ahh...an Uchiha. How amusing! Yet, it was an Uchiha who almost killed you, if I read your memories correctly.**_

_You can't rifle through my memories like that! _Sakura snapped. She felt a weird sensation in her head, as if her skull was being prodded. The Nekomata ignored her and, Sakura felt, smirked.

_**Little kit, are you deaf? The old man is calling for your turn to introduce yourself.**_

At that, Sakura tore herself away from her complaints and found the rest of her team staring at her.

"Ehehe...sorry. I kinda zoned out."

"We noticed," Kakashi said dryly.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." the genin thought for a moment. What would a twelve-year old girl say without sounding weird? And what did she say last time?

"Umm..."

"Go on."

"Dango. And uh...I dislike...er...china dishes? And I wish to be a patissier ninja...um...No! Not a pastry chef - a ninja!"

_**Pitiful.**_

_Please do shut up. I said what came first to my mind._

"...Alright then. Meet me at the training grounds in the morning at..." Kakashi said, but Sakura ignored him. She definitely knew he'd be late, what the training was going to be, and whatnot. Already, a plan for battle was forming in her mind...A devious smile quirked her lips.

_To be continued..._

I officially fail.

-brezoflower- -sama, GIVE ME YOUR WRITING SKIIIILLLLSSS!!!

-falls to ground-


	3. Notice, Apology

Attention: readers of Collateral Nascence,

We're deeply apologetic, but that member of our team is no longer posting on this site. We're sure she'd appreciate the sentiment, however, and if it's any consolation, we miss her a lot too.

Hopefully she'll come back some day and finish this story, and we'll be able to take this down.

Thanks,

Demented Fruits Basket


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